Commercial Loans Blog

Before I get into the subject of placing a commercial loan with a bank, I have two great TV show recommendations.

As you know, Netflix is now producing its own movies, and it just released the movie, Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock. What a fantastic movie! It creates the same kind of eerie suspense as Signs and A Quiet Place. I was squirming like a worm on a hot sidewalk - but it was an exciting and fun discomfort. "Oh, my goodness, Cisca, I can't look," as I buried my head under a blanket. Ha-ha!

Also on Netflix is the TV series, Damnation. In the 1920's in America, many business owners treated their workers heartlessly. And if the workers dared to organize and strike, the cigar-smoking robber barons would simply bring in strike-breakers. These strike-breakers were not just club-wielding thugs. They carried firearms and committed the outright murder of the leaders of the strike. This is the fascinating story of a reformed strike-breaker who discovers Jesus - but who does NOT forget how to shoot a gun. It's a shoot 'em up, bang-bang kind of show that offers a fascinating glimpse into the dark chapter of America's past. My wife and I binge-watched it.

Okay, now onto some training in the commercial loan business. Placing a commercial loan with a bank should be easy. If it's not, you simply need to move onto a new bank.

Commercial banks are moody and unpredictable. For example, one moment they might love loans on self-storage facilities, and the next moment - usually after taking a loss - they wouldn't touch a loan on a self-storage facility with a ten-foot pole.

Another reason for the wild mood swings of a bank is liquidity. If a bank is fully-invested, even the tiniest black hair is a deal-killer. A black hair is a flaw in a commercial loan. There is no such thing as a perfect commercial loan. Every commercial loan ever funded had some black hairs.

But if a bank has gotten a ton of pay-off's, and it is sitting on a pile of uninvested cash, the pressure to lend is tremendous. If you catch the right bank at the right time - a bank that is loaded with liquidity - you can even finance an ax murderer.

Now there is no way for an investor or a commercial loan broker to know a bank's mood in advance. Therefore the trick to closing near-bankable commercial loans is to present your loan to at least 15 banks, three at a time. Only if all 15 banks turn you down should you give up on the sweet interest rates offered by banks.

"But George, where am I going to find 15 banks? I only know two or three."

Finding banks making commercial loan is easy! The Blackburne List - freshly scrubbed and updated - contains a list of 2,500 commercial real estate lenders. You also have free access to C-Loans.com and CommercialMortgage.com. A blind, cripple could find 15 banks for any commercial loan request.

I use a similar business plan when placing my hard money commercial loans with our private investors. We prepare a one-page Mortgage Investment Bulletin, and then we blast it out to about 1,200 wealthy private investors. On any given day, at least 50 of them have dough that they looking to place.

You commercial loan brokers, if you are not working daily to get into the hard money business, you're a dummy. Imagine being Loan Committee and having the authority to approve or decline your own loans. (You still have to be very prudent and responsible.) And once you become a hard money lender, you can earn loan servicing fees, which provide crucial cash flow during recessions.

"Oh, my goodness, George. I could never service loans. That's much too hard!"

Absolute nonsense! You can hire a sub-servicing company to service your first 30 performing loans for just a handful of dollars per loan per month. And once you become a hard money lender, you'll have plenty of dough to later buy your own loan servicing software.

Quick summary: Plan on submitting your near-bankable commercial loans to fifteen banks, three at a time. To find these banks, consider The Blackburne List - freshly scrubbed and updated.